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1 This Report Contains Sensitive Information on Dormouse Box Setting the footprint tunnels This report contains sensitive information on dormouse box locations. Please check with the Monitoring & Research team before sharing externally. 1 Contents Contents ........................................................................................................................................................ 2 Summary ........................................................................................................................................................ 2 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3 Study site ....................................................................................................................................................... 4 Method ........................................................................................................................................................... 4 Results ............................................................................................................................................................ 6 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................... 6 Future surveys ............................................................................................................................................. 7 References .................................................................................................................................................... 8 Summary In a new attempt to discover if dormice are still present at Brampton Ash Woods footprint tunnels were deployed through the centre of the wood for four months. The idea is simple; a sheltered platform is suspended in the branches with inkpads and a sheet of cardboard inside. As the dormouse passes through it walks over the ink and leaves its footprints on the card. These cards are collected regularly and the footprints looked over to identify who was been through - dormice leave a distinctive print with triangular shaped pads and out-turned toes. The tunnels have an advantage over conventional boxes and tubes as they don’t require the animal to be present, or choose to build a nest, nor do they require a licence since no animals are disturbed. Although we didn’t find any conclusive dormouse footprints the trial of the methods used was successful. Following minor tweaks, the footprint tunnels will be used in other locations in future years. My thanks to Alison Looser and Simone Bullion from Suffolk Wildlife Trust for their advice, Forestry England for being understanding about the flexible nature of the checking dates and all the volunteers involved with the project. 2 Introduction The hazel dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius (hereafter referred to simply as dormouse) is an intriguing and unusual small mammal. Unlike other British small mammals dormice are relatively long-lived, have relatively low reproductive rates, live at low population densities (even in the best of habitats) and hibernate over winter (Bright et al. 2006; Juškaitis 2008; Juškaitis & Büchner 2013). They are strongly arboreal, being found primarily in deciduous or mixed woodlands with a well- developed understory and high diversity of tree and shrub species (Bright et al. 2006; Juškaitis 2007). Dormouse populations have declined drastically in the UK over the past century and their range has contracted (Rope 1985; Bright & MacPherson 2002; Bright et al. 2006). This decline is due to the loss, fragmentation and inappropriate long-term management of woodlands and hedgerows (Bright et al. 2006). Due to their rarity and specific habitat requirements, dormice are considered flagship species for woodland conservation as well as bio-indicators of habitat condition. This makes them an ideal species to monitor to help assess both woodland reserves and living landscapes. Northamptonshire is at the northern edge of the dormouse’s main range in England (Figure 1), it is relatively unsurprising therefore that at some sites where they are present their populations are small. This can make monitoring them using traditional nesting boxes and tubes difficult as these methods rely on the dormouse either building a nest in a Figure 1: The range of the dormouse (White 2014) box/tube or being present when they are being checked. Various groups have been trialling an alternative - footprint tunnels - all finding them successful at picking up evidence of dormice in both woodlands and hedges (Haag & Tester 2016; Mills et al. 2016; Middleton-Burke 2017; Bullion et al. 2018). Studies in Suffolk showed an overall detection rate of 97.5%, even at low densities, over just three months of surveying (Bullion et al. 2017). As the tubes are temporary installations they can also be used in privately owned sites where landowners may not want permanent boxes (e.g. due to forestry works). Another benefit is that this method does not disturb any dormice and so does not require a licence making it a more practical method for volunteer groups with few licence holders. 3 Study site During the 1980s dormice were found in bird boxes in Brampton Ash Wood near Corby, Northamptonshire, a private woodland owned and managed by Forestry England. This wood is congruent with Stoke Wood (Woodland Trust) and they include Stoke Wood End Quarter Wildlife Trust nature reserve and part of Stoke & Bowd Lane Woods SSSI. These woods combined cover 72ha and contain areas of ancient semi- natural woodland. Much of Brampton Ash Wood was clear-felled in the 1990s, but the new regrowth provides suitable dormouse habitat if any of the initial population survived the felling. In 2013 the Ecology Group set up three dormouse box transects, one at the edge of the woodland and two following hedgerows linking this wood to Bowd Lane Wood (also part of Stoke & Bowd Lane Woods SSSI). Annual surveys from 2014 to 2018 found no evidence of dormice and volunteer morale was getting low. It was decided to try using footprint tunnels installed temporarily in the centre of Brampton Ash Wood in an attempt to determine if dormice have survived in this woodland. Method After investigating the techniques used in previous studies those recommended by Bullion and Looser (2018) were followed. Over winter 2018-19, 59 footprint tunnels were made using 40cm lengths of square downpipe and 50cm landing platforms cut from marine plywood. The ink was made from ultra-fine pharmaceutical grade activated charcoal powder mixed with olive oil; this mix is completely harmless if ingested by the animals. The footprint tunnels are designed to be used unbaited as this allows longer between checks. © Bullion and Looser 2018 Figure 2: Footprint tunnel design & components 4 The tunnels were installed in Brampton Ash Wood on 11th May 2019 in two transects running parallel with two woodland rides. The tunnels were placed 10-20m in from the ride, at the back of the dense scrubby edge, at approximate 20m intervals as suitable vegetation allowed. Where possible the tunnels were placed 1-1.5m from the ground on hazel or other scrub on a branch that linked to other scrub. The majority of tunnels (45) were installed lying above the branch but 14 were placed underneath where this was easier, since previous studies found no difference between these positions (Bullion et al. 2018). ©2019 Google ©2019 Bluesky, CNES/Airbus, Getmapping plc, Infoterra Ltd & Bluesky, Maxar Technologies © OpenStreetMap contributors, openstreetmap.org Figure 3: 2019 footprint tunnel transects at Brampton Ash Wood (no public access) © Marcelo Lima Figure 4: Applying the ink and setting the footprint tunnels at Brampton Ash Wood The tunnels were visited by volunteers every fortnight to check for footprints, replace marked or damaged cards and re-ink the pads. On each visit it was recorded which cards were replaced because they had footprints and which were damaged. Only a single tunnel wasn’t checked on one visit because it contained a nest which may have been a dormouse nest. On the last check on 11th September 2019 all the tunnels were collected in then washed ready for next season. 5 The cards with footprints were scanned and emailed to several volunteers for analysis. Each card got looked at by at least three volunteers, any card with suspected dormouse prints was doubled checked by more experienced volunteers and also by expert Simone Bullion (Suffolk Wildlife Trust). Results Even though sadly no evidence of dormice was discovered – the possible nest turned out to belong to a wood mouse after being checked by as licence holder – the survey method was successful in finding Apodemus footprints in 55 out of the 59 tunnels. It is suspected that these were wood mouse Apodemus sylvaticus prints as yellow-necked mice A. flavicollis hasn’t been recorded here previously. A few cards containing Apodemus footprints had some prints that looked like the pad was slightly triangular shaped, a distinctive feature of dormouse footprints, but on closer examination these were rejected. Figure 5: Apodemus footprints Conclusions Whilst absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, there is no evidence that dormice are still present in Brampton Ash Wood. The clear-felling of the wood may have caused the local extinction of the population, but other factors are likely to have contributed. The dormouse populations in this area are at the edge of their range in the UK (White 2014)
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